If your schedule is jam-packed with things to do, the last thing you may feel like doing is grocery shopping. This is why personal grocery shopping is a rapidly growing industry.

You may think ordering groceries online and having them delivered to your door is something only wealthy people can enjoy, but that’s not true. The top three grocery shopping services today—Instacart, Shipt, and Peapod—are surprisingly affordable.

But which service should you choose? We’ve tested three grocery shopping services, and today you’ll learn the pros and cons of each so you can choose the best one for your situation.

The Mobile App

The app provided the current status of the shopper on a Google Map and an estimated delivery time.

The delivery arrived promptly at 4:30pm. The shopper was prompt and polite.

Final Analysis

The Instacart shopping process is intuitive, quick, and very convenient. Prices were competitive and the service fee was nominal. Service was professional and prompt.

My only complaint: we had ordered small salad cucumbers, and the shopper selected large regular cucumbers instead. She had never texted us to ask if we wanted that substitution.

Instacart does offer an optional membership choice for an annual fee. For that fee, you can order groceries and have them delivered entirely free. If you plan to use Instacart a lot, this is a good option.

Shipt was founded in 2014 out of Birmingham, Alabama. The service has spread rapidly across the country since then.

The first thing we noticed upon searching our zip code is only Meier was offered as a grocery store in our area, even though there were several more listed by Instacart. The second thing we noticed was that to buy from Shipt, you need to sign up for a monthly subscription plan.

The Shopping Process

Shopping via the Shipt website is equally convenient as the other services tested. You can search for specific items, or use any of the tailored options on the main page.

Of course, if you’re like me and enjoy browsing grocery stores by aisle, you’ll want to use the Shop by Category option.

When you’re done shopping and reviewed your cart, you’ll have the option to set a delivery time. Late-night deliveries are an option if you’re a night-owl. This was a pleasant surprise.

During the delivery setup process, you’ll be allowed to give your shopper instructions on what to do if your exact item isn’t available. Options are “Contact me”, “Use best judgement”, or “Don’t substitute”. We went with the “Contact me” option.

Once you choose your delivery option, you’ll see updates coming in via the mobile app.

The Mobile App and Delivery

Using the Shipt mobile app provides a nearly identical shopping experience as the site.

Unlike Instacart, the realtime updates aren’t as detailed. However, the personal shopper immediately texted me directly with status updates. She let us know when she was at the store, sent questions while shopping, and let me know when she was about to deliver.

Final Analysis

The Shipt shopping experience is just as good as the other services tested here. The personal touch added by the shoppers themselves gives this service a leg up on the competition. However, where Shipt falls short is how they manage their pricing.

In this test, we ordered top sirloin steak. On the final invoice, after delivery, we were charged $21.41 for the steaks.

However, our shopper had actually purchased a package of steak that was on sale for only $13.00. This means Shipt pocketed the difference of just over $8.

Doing a little research I discovered that other Shipt customers have noticed the same issue. It appears Shipt shoppers try to find your selections at discounted prices (in-store) to boost the gap between what you’ve paid, and the actual cost.

The problem with this approach is that many items are only discounted in-store when they aren’t as fresh. If a customer is paying full price for something like produce or meat, they should be receiving the freshest item available. This experience definitely left us with a bad taste in the mouth, so to speak.

Also note: Make sure if you subscript with Shipt that you really want to keep using the service. Just a week after subscribing, Shipt billed our bank the entire year’s membership fee rather than monthly billing.

Other than those significant negatives, Shipt was an easy to use, efficient grocery shopping service with wonderful customer service.

Peapod: A Unique Online Grocery Store

Peapod was the original online grocery store. It was founded in 1989 by Andrew Parkinson and Thomas Parkinson. It was a service idea well ahead of its time.

With online grocery shopping services becoming ever more popular, Peapod is now coming into its own.

The Shopping Process

You’ll find the website is very much like all of the other grocery shopping services reviewed above.

You can browse through aisles, search for specific food, or use tailored options like “Peapod’s Fresh Picks” or “Meal Solutions”.

One unique thing about Peapod is that you don’t select a grocery store because Peapod is its own virtual grocery store. Like with most grocery stores, you’ll find special offers and discounts.

The company also has its own line of branded foods. These are usually less expensive than other brands.

Once you’re done shopping, you can review your order and add or remove items as you wish.

Like Instacart, Peapod does not require a subscription. You will only pay a fixed delivery fee.

With the excellent prices available on Peapod branded items, we found we were able to purchase a bit more food at the same cost as other grocery shopping services.

However, there’s a way to offset this service fee.

The Delivery

When you select your delivery time, Peapod offers large time slots that are heavily discounted because these are times when the Peapod truck is in your service area anyway.

Knocking off $4.00 like this removes most of the delivery fee. This is without paying for a subscription!

During our test, the Peapod delivery truck showed up right on time, and we even received a text notification when they pulled up to the driveway.

The Mobile App

The Peapod mobile app lets you do everything available on the website, but in addition you can also scan items in your pantry to quickly add them to your cart.

Peapod will text you notifications about your order. If you’ve chosen a large timeslot for your delivery, Peapod will also narrow that down to a specific window.

And the Winner Is…

All three of these grocery delivery services are alike in terms of website and mobile app functionality.

The differentiating factors include:

Subscription required

Item pricing and discounts

Delivery fees

Customer service

Grocery store selection

To choose the service for you, consider the following:

Shipt loses points for a required pricey subscription, lack of grocery store options, and pricing manipulation. It gains points for customer service. If you’re looking for a personal experience with your shopper and aren’t so concerned about price, Shipt is a decent option. However, of the three tested, it comes in the last place.

Instacart loses points for impersonal customer service. However, it gains points for no subscription required, fair pricing, low delivery fees, and bonus points for grocery store options. If you’re looking for convenience, no hassle, and you have a strong preference for a specific grocery store in your area, Instacart is the best choice.

Peapod loses points for no grocery store options and impersonal customer service. At the same time, it gains a lot of points for item pricing (great deals), no subscription required, and insignificant delivery fees. If you’re looking for a fast and easy way to get food delivered at the lowest possible price, Peapod is really the only way to go.

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infmom

September 7, 2018 at 12:41 am

Before you check out on Instacart, go to the list of items and open it. You'll be given a chance to specify what substitutions you want for each item. You can pick something specific, or say "best match," or tell the shopper not to substitute if the item's not available. It's a little time consuming to set it up the first time, but Instacart remembers your choices so you won't have to do it again if you order the same items.

I have found that the cost of having Instacart deliver is pretty close to what we pay when we go shopping, because it's inevitable that we have all kinds of impulse buys when we wander through the store. This way we cut down on that, plus we can give the hard-working shopper a decent tip.

Ryan has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering. He's worked 13 years in automation engineering, 5 years in IT, and now is an Apps Engineer. A former Managing Editor of MakeUseOf, he's spoken at national conferences on Data Visualization and has been featured on national TV and radio.